{
  "source": "Cooked Index — occupational AI risk register",
  "page": "https://cookedindex.com/jobs/cooks-restaurant/",
  "methodology": "https://cookedindex.com/methodology",
  "notice": "Verdicts are re-examined as evidence accumulates. Re-fetch before relying on this; the page above always carries the current score.",
  "scored_at": "2026-08-11",
  "model": "claude-opus-5",
  "occupation": {
    "title": "Cooks, Restaurant",
    "soc_code": "35-2014",
    "category": "Food",
    "us_employment": 1409890,
    "median_annual_wage": 37390
  },
  "verdict": "EXPOSED",
  "risk_resistance": 57,
  "contested": false,
  "near_boundary": false,
  "dimensions": {
    "task_resistance": 17,
    "embodiment": 19,
    "liability_shield": 3,
    "trust_premium": 9,
    "judgment_accountability": 9
  },
  "reasoning": {
    "task_resistance": "Butchering a case of chicken thighs, tasting a sauce for acid balance, and re-firing a table's entrees to land together at the pass are physical, sensory, judgment-under-time tasks with no digital analogue — the 17 rather than 20 reflects that recipe scaling, portion specs, and prep lists have already moved off the cook's head and onto printed sheets and back-office software.",
    "embodiment": "You stand ten to twelve hours in 100°F+ line heat, moving between flat-top, fryer, and walk-in, handling knives and boiling stock in a space too tight for two people to pass — the 19 is because the kitchen is at least a fixed, mapped room, unlike roofing or field repair.",
    "liability_shield": "No state licenses a line cook; the food handler card is a few hours of training and the health-code citation lands on the operator's permit and the certified food protection manager, not on you, so nothing legally requires a human in your specific position.",
    "trust_premium": "Regulars may come back for the food, but the ticket comes through a server and an expo window — you are credited at 9 rather than 4 because a station cook who knows the chef's standards and the kitchen's timing is expensive to replace mid-season, and at 9 rather than 15 because that value accrues to the restaurant, not to a customer relationship you own.",
    "judgment_accountability": "You decide when the pork is done by feel, whether that batch of stock gets pulled, and how to re-sequence six tickets when a table sends something back — real calls, but made inside a menu, plate spec, and cost target set by the chef, which is what keeps it at 9 instead of the 14+ of someone who owns the menu and the food cost."
  },
  "rationale": "Almost nothing a line cook does during service is text or screen work — you are breaking down proteins, working multiple pans on a hot line, adjusting seasoning by taste, and calling timing across a ticket rail in a cramped, chaotic space that today's robotics cannot handle. The real threat is not language AI but capital: central-kitchen prepped components, sous-vide and combi programs, and single-task fry/grill robots that let a restaurant run the same menu with fewer bodies. There is no license protecting the job and, for the modal line cook, the diner never knows your name, so the count of cooks per restaurant compresses even as the craft persists.",
  "outlook": "Restaurant cooks will still be cooking in 2035, but chains and mid-market operators will run leaner lines on pre-prepped components and programmed equipment, pushing wage growth and job security toward cooks who do scratch technique, butchery, and line leadership.",
  "what_would_raise_it": {
    "levers": [
      {
        "dimension": "trust_premium",
        "change": "Menu-labeling or 'made from scratch' disclosure norms that force restaurants to declare centrally-prepped/reheated components — analogous to the 'fresh vs. previously frozen' seafood rules and existing state 'fresh-baked' labeling actions — would let scratch kitchens charge a visible premium for on-site cooking, and with it the cooks who do it. Also open-kitchen/chef's-counter formats where the diner watches and pays for the hand.",
        "plausibility": "plausible",
        "would_add": 3
      },
      {
        "dimension": "task_resistance",
        "change": "Task-mix shift: if central-kitchen components and combi/sous-vide programs absorb the routine prep and hold tier, the remaining role concentrates on butchery, à la minute cookery, seasoning-by-taste, substitution for allergies, and expediting timing under a crushed ticket rail. Fewer cooks per restaurant, but each remaining job is harder to automate. Watch headcount-per-cover falling while the job title's task inventory shifts toward station-lead work.",
        "plausibility": "already happening",
        "would_add": 2
      },
      {
        "dimension": "judgment_accountability",
        "change": "If FDA Food Code adoption cycles keep pushing the Person-in-Charge / Certified Food Protection Manager requirement deeper into the line (many states already require a CFPM on premises during all hours of operation), the senior cook who is PIC on a shift owns HACCP calls, cooling-log decisions, and allergen refusals with a name attached, and health-department citations follow that name.",
        "plausibility": "already happening",
        "would_add": 3
      },
      {
        "dimension": "liability_shield",
        "change": "A narrow route only: state or municipal rules requiring a named, certified food protection manager to personally sign off on HACCP plans, reduced-oxygen packaging (ROP) variances, or sous-vide programs — already required for ROP variances in many jurisdictions — plus allergen-training mandates on the Illinois/Massachusetts model. This attaches to the certified lead, not the modal line cook, so the ceiling is low.",
        "plausibility": "plausible",
        "would_add": 3
      }
    ],
    "ceiling_note": "Embodiment is already near max and cannot rise; task_resistance at 17 has little headroom. The real risk is not scored here — it is headcount compression per restaurant from capital substitution, which the register does not measure. An occupation can hold a high resistance score while shedding hundreds of thousands of jobs. Liability and trust levers attach mostly to chefs and station leads, so they do not protect the modal anonymous line cook."
  },
  "adjudication": null,
  "employment_history": {
    "points": [
      {
        "y": 2017,
        "emp": 1276510,
        "wage": 25180
      },
      {
        "y": 2018,
        "emp": 1340810,
        "wage": 26530
      },
      {
        "y": 2019,
        "emp": 1401890,
        "wage": 27790
      },
      {
        "y": 2020,
        "emp": 1109650,
        "wage": 28800
      },
      {
        "y": 2021,
        "emp": 1193860,
        "wage": 30010
      },
      {
        "y": 2022,
        "emp": 1321480,
        "wage": 34110
      },
      {
        "y": 2023,
        "emp": 1412350,
        "wage": 35780
      },
      {
        "y": 2024,
        "emp": 1452130,
        "wage": 36830
      },
      {
        "y": 2025,
        "emp": 1409890,
        "wage": 37390
      }
    ],
    "from": 2017,
    "to": 2025,
    "change_pct": 10.4,
    "comparable_from": 2019,
    "spans_soc_revision": true
  },
  "pivots": [],
  "license": "https://cookedindex.com/terms"
}